“The city currently has utility infrastructure in the northeast side of town, in the Center Point 70 area, so we own the pipe in the ground, the water tower, and the lift station, but we don’t have an ability to service it with our own utilities,” he said.
A longstanding agreement currently allows Clark County to service this infrastructure and treat the wastewater that passes through it, Chodkowski said.
“Through the course of time, interests and objectives have changed for both parties, so at the time the ARPA money arrived, we (decided) to connect our existing water infrastructure up to Center Point 70 and put the city’s water in our pipes,” he said.
This would open up an ability for Huber Heights to provide wastewater services for the area of Center Point 70, as well as acreage located south of the highway, west of Route 4, Chodkowski said.
“Currently, this is mostly farmland, but it immediately abuts Route 4, so it’s the next logical place to seek development,” he said. “We thought this was an opportunity for us to put infrastructure in the ground to support future development in that area.”
Improvements will involve running a water main up Bellefontaine Road, connecting the city’s water system to the pipes at Center Point 70 Boulevard, as well as implementing a connection to the city of Fairborn’s wastewater treatment plant.
“We’re not building a new wastewater treatment plant, but Fairborn’s treatment plant is just inside our city, at the southeast corner, so we’re going to extend sewer main south, from Center Point 70, parallel to Route 4, and connect to the Fairborn plant, so that we can provide an opportunity for future growth and development on the east end of town in the commercial and industrial logistics areas,” Chodkowski said.
Costs to complete the project are projected at around $6.75 million — $3 million for the water main phase and $3.75 million for the sewer phase. Along with the $4 million in ARPA funds, $2.75 million of the city’s sewer project fund will go toward the sewer improvement phase.
Chodkowski said work is estimated to begin by spring of this year.
“It’s mostly farmland, so there’s not a lot in the way,” he said. “The goal is to try to get as much pipe in the ground as possible before the farmers have to plant their spring crop.”
Editor’s Note: This story is part of a Dayton Daily News series tracking how dozens of our area’s largest governments are spending hundreds of millions of dollars combined from the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021. Visit our “Billions in COVID aid: Where it’s going” special section on our website to see summaries from other communities.
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